Saturday, December 3, 2016

Ep 38 - Song 2: "Jolly Old St Nicholas" by Mary McAdams

"This is a calling. I said 'no' to it for a long time and it kept saying 'yes,'" McAdams said of her music. "I think it’s what I’m put here to do."
- from a Cityview article by Michael Swanger

"Blame it all on Carole King. Mary McAdams found her older brother’s copy of “Tapestry” when she was 9 years old.

"She put the album on the stereo in her parent’s living room and fell in love with songwriting...

"Then she discovered Jackson Browne. Then she got a guitar.

"Mary wrote and wrote in high school, recorded a 12-song demo that never saw the light of day and panicked at the thought of playing music in front of people. She had full blown stage fright. Mary put her guitar away and tried to deny the pull that music had on her. She went to college and got a degree in Science, got married and began to raise her family.

“'You can run from your calling for a good long time, but you can’t run forever,' says McAdams. After a nearly 10-year breakup with music that 'almost broke me,' she picked up that guitar and hasn’t looked back since...

“Mary McAdams brings a mother’s love and a lover’s passion to the 10 original compositions on this Iowa-based release. Mary can serve up slow and saucy roadhouse blues, earnest Americana roots rockin’ or a lullabye ballad with equal authenticity. From the funky piano fills of “Greed” to the simple guitar picking of “Fourth of July” – you’ll fall in love with the subjects in Mary’s songs.”
- from her home page